Article

From the horse’s mouth

Vizio

My Comments

Increasingly Google is encouraging companies involved in consumer audio-video to integrate Google Chromecast audio or video functionality in to their devices. This avoids the need to purchase and install a Chromecast dongle to benefit from audio and video streaming from online services.

Sonifi brought this concept in to the hotel scene so you can lie on your hotel-room bed and watch Netflix managed by your Android phone while Vizio, Sony and Philips are implementing it in to their TVs. Google even implements this concept in to their Google Fiber TV set-top boxes so that you don’t need a Chromecast dongle for this functionality. But Vizio has taken things further with Google Cast for Audio by offering this functionality in their latest range of sound bars.

Typically, you may think that a company may offer this function just to one soundbar or speaker base in their lineup but Vizio has offered it across the board for their up-and-coming SmartCast soundbars. These will work as Google Cast Audio devices where they can play online audio sources like Pandora or Spotify rather than being a “soundbar + Chromecast” device that adds Chromecast to your TV.

One article sees these soundbars as an answer to the Sonos multi-room sound system and nothing is further from the truth thanks to Google’s latest Chromecast software. Here, you could gang these speakers together in a “party mode” or have them playing different programs in a similar way to what you can do with Sonos. Let’s not forget that you can have something like Spotify or Pandora playing and the music isn’t interrupted if a call comes in or one of your phone’s apps throws a notification signal. It also means that the ringtone or the notification sounds don’t blast through your Google Cast setup’s speakers.

As for the price, the cheapest unit, which is a 38” 3.0 setup costs US$180 while the most expensive models being the 45” 5.1 setup that comes with surround speakers and a slim subwoofer runs for US$500.

Who knows who will launch the first stereo or home-theatre receiver or stereo system that has integral Google Cast functionality or if an existing multiroom audio platform will end up with Google Cast integrated in to it.